Progress on highways collaboration as minister says ‘don’t go it alone’

Lee Baker reports on the heated debates at LTT’s The Future of Highways Delivery conference, held last week at the Kia Oval in London

Let us integrate: speakers at the Future of Highways Delivery

Let us integrate: speakers at the Future of Highways Delivery

Local Highways authorities across England are in talks to create a collaborative alliance for highways services with agreement in principle to create a Yorkshire Highways Alliance following an efficiency drive.

The minister for local transport, Norman Baker, told The Future of Highways conference: “I am pleased that authorities in Yorkshire, the South West, North East and North West are actively considering setting up collaborative highways alliances. I would encourage all parts of the country to consider following this approach, appropriately tailored to suit local circumstances.”

Matthew Lugg, seconded to the Highways Maintenance Efficiency Programme, told the conference, held at the Kia Oval cricket ground: “There is agreement in principle on a Yorkshire Highways Alliance between 12 authorities and a South West Highways Alliance is proposed.” There was also an appetite for further joint working in other regions, he added, following the £12m in savings the Midlands Highways Alliance has secured.

Lugg claimed that local highway authorities in England could save £170m through collaboration and shared services, standardising contacts and specifications and benchmarking. “Why do we all have to do traffic modelling and bridge engineering separately?” he asked, acknowledging that this would “be challenging to existing empires and vested interests”.

“If you aggregate and put work together, you are going to get bigger economies of scale. 153 authorities all procuring separately; we must stop doing that.”

Dana Skelley, Transport for London’s director of roads, who spoke about the London Highways Alliance contracts, criticised “an ignorance over the benefits of integration” in the industry. The HMEP hopes councils can overcome the barriers by following advice in its planned toolkit on collaborative alliances.

However, Dominic Boyle, head of highways, 2020 Liverpool, said there was also a need for greater integration between the public and private sectors, as well as between clients, through co-location and integrating systems. Phil Hoare, managing director, Atkins, said that the scope for savings through contracts with the private sector was likely to be greater than through collaboration between clients.

“How can we drive that integration?” asked Hoare. “The HMEP does not have a toolkit on integration between providers and clients.”

LTT's follow-up event: Future of Highways Delivery North  will be held on the 27 June in Manchester Town Hall.  Find out more...